The Ministry's Ward and the Orphan
by thevinylfreak
Summary: A ward of the ministry, given up at birth, longs to discover who he is. A young orphan, too, long to discover his family, and when their paths cross, their entire worlds are turned completely upside-down.


Casey lived a life rather differently than most normal children of his kind. By the time he was five, he could read like a child of ten; he was an expert at wizard's chess at the age of six; he was fluent in French by the time h was seven. He even showed signs of magic earlier than most children his age. Yes, Casey was an accomplished child, and being accomplished was all he knew. It was all he had to keep him occupied during the hardest days of his life, especially when he was supposed to move again.

Casey was a ward of the ministry, meaning he was without parents. He knew nothing about his parents except that they had liked the name 'Casey Morgan Potter' enough to choose it for him. He thought that perhaps, he might be related to the Potters who had been killed by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named on halloween night in 1981, but he wasn't sure. Nobody would tell him who his family was. He bounced around from family to family instead, sometimes living with two families a year and sometimes living with one family for two years. He got his Hogwarts acceptance letter when he lived with the MacDougal family in 1989 and nothing made him more thrilled than to finally have a permanent home for most of the year, except for the summers. Every September the first, he would leave one family and every year when he stepped off the train at Platform 9 3/4, he would be greeted by another.

Casey had a unique appearance; on his head was a mass of messy reddish-brown hair that stuck up in the back and his hazel eyes peered throw his messy bangs at a height of five-foot-seven by the time he was thirteen. He was lanky and had an athlete's build, but Casey was the farthest thing from athletic. He was born on the sixteenth day in May, 1978 at St. Mungo's and was immediately given up for adoption, reasons unknown. All his life, Casey thought of reason upon reason of why his parents would give him up, but he could come to no conclusion. If they didn't want him, why, then, would they leave a special request for Casey's name to remain Casey Potter?

Things changed at the beginning of his third year as a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He sat at the Gryffindor table, the table of the house he had been sorted in two years prior, and was struck when he heard Professor McGonagall shout the name 'Harry Potter'. That name had a different meaning to him than it did for everyone else around him. While everyone gasped and silenced, gawking at the Boy Who Lived, Casey's hazel eyes fell on a face that bore a similar bone structure to his with jet black hair that stuck up in the back - just like Casey's - and emerald green eyes beneath it. Harry nervously sat on the stool as he waited to be sorted, and when the hat shouted, 'Gryffindor!', he quickly ran to join the cheering table, Casey's eyes following him. Harry halted when he was across the table from Casey, as Casey was staring at him with his mouth suddenly agape. Harry didn't look frightened; instead, he looked as if he, too, were wondering who the boy with the similar bone structure in his face was.

Casey didn't speak to Harry, but he certainly didn't keep his distance. If he heard Harry's voice in the dormitory downstairs late at night, Casey would creep down to see what it was that Harry was up to (because, you know, he didn't want Gryffindor to lose any points). He wasn't stalking Harry, but he was marveled by him. Harry might just be the missing link to who Casey is as a person, but at the same time, Harry might just simply be a coincidence. By the end of the year, after Harry had rescued some sort of stone from the forbidden corridor (Casey didn't know the importance of said rock and didn't see why it should be important), Harry wasn't surprised when he woke up in the hospital wing and saw Casey hovering over him.

"Who are you?" Harry asked him quietly. He didn't know anything about Casey; not his name, not his age... Nothing.

"No one important..." Casey muttered in response.

"Clearly, you're lying... You've been following me all year. Why?" Harry demanded, sitting up in his bed.

"If you knew my story, Harry, you'd understand why..." Casey replied.

"Well, why don't you start by telling me your name?" Casey was silent for a moment.

"No... I can't start there. I'll start here: I'm a lot like you in the sense that I, too, have no parents... The only difference is that my parents gave me up when I was only a baby. I don't know why, but they did. I've been moved around from family to family, none of them knowing who I was but all of them, upon hearing my name, wondered if, perhaps, I were connected to your parents... You're pretty famous, you know."

"Don't remind me... Now what is your name?"

"Now, don't be frightened... But as long as I've known myself, I've been Casey Potter." Harry was silent, suddenly intrigued. Harry, too, had been raised an orphan, though his parents were murdered ten years prior by an evil wizard by the name of Lord Voldemort. The only thing he knew about his parents was the fact that their names were James and Lily Potter. He didn't know about any extended family (brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins...) except for his Aunt Petunia, who was his mother's sister. Suddenly, another Potter has appeared and he opened his mouth to ask what Casey knew about the Potter family, but then he remembered that Casey had been raised without his parents, too.

"Oh..." Harry was without words. He didn't know what to say to Casey, who could be a total stranger, but could also be a cousin or, Harry hoped, a brother. He was about to speak again when the hospital wing doors opened and in came the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. He paused when he saw Casey standing at Harry's side and both looked at him with their green and hazel eyes with inquisitive expressions.

"Well, boys," Dumbledore said to them in his gentle voice, "I believe a little explaining is due." Both boys listened intently as Dumbledore spoke, their eyes widening when they learned that they had mutual parents. Casey learned that he had been conceived in Lily and James's seventh year at Hogwarts sometime at the beginning of the year. Lily's pregnancy had gone unnoticed and when simple potions at the school's hospital wing weren't enough to cure her severe abdominal pains, she was sent to St. Mungo's, where she delivered a healthy baby boy she called Casey Morgan Potter. Out of fear of James leaving her, Dumbledore assured them, she gave up Casey for adoption, not knowing that James would have loved and adored Casey more than anything.

"So... We're brothers?" piped up young Harry, his green eyes turning to Casey's form. Dumbledore nodded his affirmation and Casey's hazel eyes met Harry's green ones. When their gazes clashed, Casey gently smiled at him and ruffled Harry's black hair playfully.

"I've always wanted a little brother," said Casey, and young Harry beamed at him. This little fact was important to them both because Harry had grown up in a world where he thought he was the freak who would be alone forever and now, he had a an older brother. It was important to Casey because he had been raised knowing nothing but his family's surname and now, he had a little brother that just might be able to tie him to more family.

Both boys were terribly disappointed that they would be returning to the lives they had lived when Hogwarts wasn't a part of it.


End file.
